Square Enix advising Final Fantasy 14 players to change passwords due to hacking attempt

Square Enix has warned Final Fantasy 14 players of a hacking attempt and suggests everyone with an account change their passwords.

According to the company, it is currently experiencing an attack by a third party attempting to gain access to the Square Enix Account Management System. They are doing this by using a combination of email addresses and passwords possibly obtained from “online services of other companies."

Square advises against using the same email address and password combination for your Square Enix account as you do for other online services, as it increases the possibility of a third party gaining unauthorized access to your account. That said, you are still at a high risk of your account being accessed should your password contain an easy pattern, sequences of characters, or your DOB.

Should you happen to be using the same email address and password combination on your Square Enix account as you do for another service, or if you are using a password that can be easily guessed, you should change your password immediately.

Square said it is currently mitigating the effect of the attack by restricting access to accounts it believes may have been compromised by unauthorized users. Should you find that your Square Enix account login has been restricted, an email will be sent to the email address registered to your account with instructions on resetting your password.

When creating a password, it is always best to use a combination of characters not easily discerned. It helps if you use a sentence or a question only you would know the answer to - but with a combination of different characters that would be hard to hack. Or, you can even create a silly password like "Iliketoeat6754CornontheCob$#!+onsunny018*+afterNoons". Or something similar.

The company said should it continue to experience rising numbers of unauthorized access attempts, a password reset for all Square Enix accounts may be initiated.